In the aftermath of 2017’s Justice League bombing commercially and critically, the DC Entertainment Universe took a massive L and Joss Whedon, the replacement for Zack Snyder to direct the project after the latter’s abrupt departure, received the blame. Another product of the aftermath was a rumor that Snyder’s cut of the film still existed and was far better than what the public received.
After three years of intense pressure from comic book and (DCEU) fans worldwide, Warner Bros. confirmed the Snyder cut did exist and allowed him to complete his vision for Zach Snyder’s Justice League.
Snyder’s involvement with the DCEU hasn’t been the home run many expected when announced in 2010, but fans have always remained hopeful for a hit from the partnership. Does Zach Snyder’s Justice League finally deliver the film that both the cherished DC heroes and DCEU fans are due?
It would be an understatement to say the Snyder Cut is an entirely different film from its predecessor because an additional two hours of runtime provides plenty of room for growth. The plot is the same with our heroes uniting in hopes of stopping evil forces from acquiring the three Mother Boxes, but Snyder’s changes improve it in almost every possible way.
The most satisfying of those improvements is the film’s character development and nothing was more enjoyable to see than the expanded roles of Ray Fisher and Cyborg. The previous iteration of Justice League reduced Cyborg, played by Fisher, to a sidekick of the sidekicks as he received the least amount of meaningful screen time among the heroes. In Snyder’s version, the character not only has a more robust backstory but also more of an opportunity to show why he’s such an essential piece to the Justice League team and it has spectacular results.
We get a full display of Cyborg’s powers with incredible visual effects and his story gives the movie a tremendous amount of heart. The fact that simply more screen was the catalyst for this happening is a testament to Fisher’s talent as a performer and the ineptness of Whedon, whose personal issues with Fisher led him to cut a majority of Cyborg’s scenes in the previous film.
Steppenwolf, played by Ciarán Hinds, also benefited from additional development and time. In the first film, Steppenwolf was the weakest supervillain on this side of Apocalypse from the X-Men films. Kevin Hart’s Snowball from The Secret Life of Pets was a more intimidating villain than Whedon’s version of Steppenwolf.
Snyder’s Steppenwolf gives a much clearer understanding of his motivation to stop at nothing for the Mother Boxes and looks far more ready for war, the latter being the result of a CGI makeover. When he’s in action, Steppenwolf doesn’t quite have the malevolence of a Thanos, but he proves to be pretty nasty in his own right as he slaughters Amazons, Atlantean, and anyone else in his way.
Making things darker was also a sorely needed change made by Snyder. The previous film had a tone similar to The Avengers films – PG comic violence/action mixed with humor. Getting hit with little to no blood is gone. Snyder also nixed random tropes like Aquaman becoming a client to the Lasso of Truth’s Iyanla Vanzant in a mid-movie episode of Fix My Life.
In its place, Snyder uses his signature slow-motion action shots to stylize the bloodiest comic book violence ever seen in a live-action DCEU film and the characters having a no-nonsense approach to saving the world. It’s a welcomed enhancement that makes the film more entertaining and less about selling merchandise.
If the Snyder cut stumbles anywhere, editing and the script are the trouble spots. There are times when there isn’t a seamless transition between the older and newer scenes, and you’ll ask if you missed something. As for the script, the dialogue wasn’t the best in the first film and it remained that way in this one.
Overall, Zack Snyder’s Justice League is a massive upgrade over the initially released film. The runtime is a lot longer and might be a cause for concern. However, the payoff for the additional time comes in more developed characters and finally getting to see what Snyder could do with the most beloved characters in comics free of studio interference and it is glorious. Regardless if you hated or loved the first film, Snyder’s version is guaranteed to be time well spent.
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